By Luiz Amaral and Andrew Steer The world has never seen such political momentum to protect our planet’s forests. Around the world, 366 companies, worth $2.9 trillion, have committed to eliminating deforestation from their supply chains, according to the organization Supply Change. Groups such as the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, the Consumer Goods Forum and […]

By Octavia Payne 2016 has been a busy year for Global Forest Watch! From the launch of new web applications to the addition of new data sets and features, Global Forest Watch is becoming an ever more powerful, customizable platform that meets our users’ needs. As we wrap up the year, let’s look back at […]

By Sarah Sargent and Ryan Sarsfield Taken by Paulo Q Maia (Flickr). License information here. Global Forest Watch (GFW) Commodities recently released new data and analysis for soybean production in Brazil’s Cerrado biome, a mix of forest and savannah rich with biodiversity and carbon. These data show users the spatial extent of soy production and how […]

By Ryan Sarsfield Cerrado Parque Estadual dos Pirineus by Jonathan Wilkins via Wikimedia. The photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Just ten years ago, Brazilian soy’s reputation was at an all-time low for its links to deforestation in the Amazon. The industry, environmental NGOs and the Brazilian government reacted swiftly to establish […]

By Mikaela Weisse and Matt Hansen Every year, the GLAD group at the University of Maryland works to update the annual tree cover loss data on Global Forest Watch. But with the huge volume of satellite imagery input and computing power needed to process it all, this is not yet a smooth process. On top […]

By Nancy Harris and Carolyn Ciciarelli Since GFW Climate launched in Paris last December, we have been hard at work to move users beyond just viewing pixels on a map to better understanding how those pixels translate to real world impacts on international climate change mitigation efforts. GFW Climate has released three new features that […]

By Mikaela Weisse It is crucial to learn about tree cover loss as early as possible if we wish to stop it. However, when we took down the monthly FORMA alert system in April, we were left with only annually updated information for all but a few countries. Today, Global Forest Watch is closing the […]

By Thomas Maschler and Asa Strong WATCH OUR WEBINAR to learn how to use GFW Map Builder Open data enables communities and decisions makers around the world to engage in important societal and environmental issues. It increases transparency and informs actions that often affect livelihoods. But simply making data ‘open’ doesn’t guarantee change. To drive […]

By Yiyuan Jasmine Qin and Todd Gartner Drought in Sao Paulo. Flooding in the Himalayas. And pollution in Sumatra. These three distinct water crises have a common cause—degradation in forests. That’s because upstream forests, wetlands and other “natural infrastructure” play a critical role in supplying clean water downstream. They stabilize soil and reduce erosion, regulate […]